Cold Boot Problem

July 2, 2006 9:01 PM

Problem with starting PC: Start it up cold having been off for an hour: fresh install of windows XP SP2 doesn't load - it beeps once, goes through the BIOS, beeps again, stops, the display turns off, restarts and then windows loads perfectly. If I turn it off and it's only been off for a few minutes though, everything is fine. Help!

Originally thought it was the power supply - have just replaced it with a 400W Antec Smartpower - the problem still persists. Have disconnected the CD drive, DVD Drive, and FDD and still have the same problem (only disconneted power cords, IDE cable is still attached). This leaves the following:
Bios: Downloaded latest version from manufacturor website - am using AMI v1.21.12
Processor: Intel P4 (Socket 478)
Motherboard: ECS P4VX4SD2 +
Ram: 512Mb (verified by Windows Memory Diagnostic )
HDD: 120 GB - seems fine, although this unverified
Video Card: 4AGP Visiontek Xtasy 9100. Was using generic driver windows driver downloaded from windows update, am now using Catalust 6.4 downloaded from Visiontek's website (problem still persists since change)
Some other notes:
According to American Megatrends Website (PDF) documentation, that extra beep could mean RAM failure (see page 15) - hence thinking of replacing RAM, even though Windows tool said OK.
Also: If I switch the "ACPI aware O/S" to "No" in the Bios the computer won't load windows. It will try, stop, restart, go to the windows safe mode menu, and, even if you select safe mode, still won't load. It will start loading things, then stop and reboot. This will then create a loop unless I change the setting back to say that windows is ACPI aware. Have three questions therefore:
1) Not sure what next to do, was going to replace the RAM and see if that did anything. Any other thoughts? Do I try replacing the video card and see if that gets me anywhere?
2) Also, I'm thinking it would be useful to see where safe mode stops when ACPI is turned off, but the screen blinks too fast for me to note it down, any suggestions?
3) If we think it's a motherboard issue, any recommendations for a MTB that I can use the existing processor with? Also, since I've never replaced a motherboard, or replaced a processor, any tips gratefully appreciated.
Help!!

posted by Mave_80 to computers & internet (14 comments total)

One other question: any idea where else I could post this question?
posted by Mave_80 at 9:08 PM on July 2, 2006

Very much sounds like a heat related issue, I would change out the motherboard first. Motherboards are easy to change out. Here's one on fleabay.

Can you corrow some RAM from a friend or a work computer? Or buy RAM from somewhere like Best Buy for an easy return if your problem is elsewhere?
posted by vaportrail at 9:20 PM on July 2, 2006

I've had a few issues with ECS motherboards before. One thing that sometimes solved strange issues was moving the RAM to different sockets. Can you re-arrange the memory sticks at all?

Also, you may want to try memtest x86 for testing the memory. It's pretty much the gold standard of memory testers.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 9:20 PM on July 2, 2006

CMOS battery maybe? May not be required on your computer though - nonvolatile BIOS memory.

How do you turn it off? If you flip a switch on the power supply, or turn off a power bar, you are completely disconnecting the computer. However, if you only use the power switch on the front, or if you let windows turn off as it shuts down, standby power is still active. It would be interesting to investigate how it acts with respect to standby power vs. hard power off.

Standard advice applies, boot with knoppix/Bart's PE. Disconnect everything but the essentials and see how it behaves. Build it up one part at a time..
posted by Chuckles at 10:24 PM on July 2, 2006

I second the battery comment. Many computers will insist on rebooting after the BIOS discovers something new, which it of course would do everytime you boot cold if your battery's dead and it's been off for a while. The fact that you can leave it off for just a few minutes and all is fine supports this thought, I think.
posted by dsword at 10:43 PM on July 2, 2006

I third the battery, there is probably a setting in the BIOS to say what to do when new hardware is detected. If there is, set it to "prompt", this will confirm that the old settings are not being retained.
There is also the outside chance that it may be the hard disk. It takes a little while for a hard disk to spin up when cold starting a machine, and I have seen some BIOSes not wait long enough for the drive to respond before giving up. If your drive motor is just starting to fail then it could cause the problem without affecting Windows when it does manage to boot.
posted by AndrewStephens at 12:55 AM on July 3, 2006

Also, make sure that the hard drive is properly jumpered. There are two ways to jumper some hard drives (notably Western Digital models) as IDE masters, and it's easy to pick the wrong way if you're not aware of that.

If your HD is the only thing on its IDE cable, the setting you want is Master/Single, and if it's a WD drive this will probably involve removing all the jumper blocks entirely.

If you follow the drive label instructions to jumper a WD drive for Master (as opposed to Master/Single), and it's the only drive on its IDE cable, it will wait a loooong time after an IDE Reset for the nonexistent slave to come ready before admitting to its own existence. Sometimes this makes the BIOS not even try to boot Windows; sometimes the BIOS (after a lengthy delay) will load the Windows boot loader, which then fails; and sometimes both the BIOS and the boot loader will work, after delays.
posted by flabdablet at 7:53 AM on July 3, 2006

Oh, and if you're disconnecting drives for test purposes, you definitely need to unplug the IDE cables from the drives. An unpowered device on an IDE cable will mess things up.
posted by flabdablet at 7:55 AM on July 3, 2006

CMOS and Ram replaced - problem still there. Am now wondering if it's a faulty HDD...
posted by Mave_80 at 7:55 AM on July 3, 2006

Flabdablet - am checking HDD. I now get to Win Xp logo, but then get a Windows blue screen saying "one of the disks needs to be checked for consistency" - it then reboots and gets stuck in a loop. Hmmm... Time to change the HDD methinks...
posted by Mave_80 at 7:58 AM on July 3, 2006

I have a similar issue with my work PC not starting correctly cold, but after a few min I can hit the reset switch and it'll boot.

I didn't used to know why till I turned on the voice prompt crap. Turns out the message it says is "System failed due to CPU overclocking."

You would think that turning off all the overclocking and setting everything at standard/default would resolve this, but you would be wrong. It's an ASUS P5AD2-Premium (ha!) if you care.

I've never found a resolution to this (or at least didn't care enough to invest the time to, given that it only manifests when cold so it's hard to troubleshoot) but I mention it just so you know if none of these other things work out, or if you have an option for voice notifications.
posted by phearlez at 12:36 PM on July 3, 2006

Problem still there with a new HDD!! Arghhh!!
Phearlez - how do you know if it's overclocked?
I guess now I need to look at MTBs for this - does anyone have any recommendations?
posted by Mave_80 at 7:05 PM on July 3, 2006

You've got to try booting from a live CD or boot floppy.

How did you get Windows on the new HDD, some kind of image or a fresh install?
posted by Chuckles at 7:59 PM on July 3, 2006

Something else to try: pound on F8 during startup to bring up the menu you'd ordinarily use to get into Safe mode, then select the item that turns off automatic restart on error. That way, when Windows dies, you should see a Blue Screen Of Death with error codes on it that you can Google.
posted by flabdablet at 3:24 AM on July 4, 2006